As early as 1933 U. S. Pat. No. 1,919,930 (Control Mechanism for Motor Vehicles) best summarized in claim 1, discloses a single operating member for controlling the speed of the vehicle. Additionally, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,051,906, 2,063,793, 2,081,254, 2,102,586, 2,135,071, and 2,325,771 of August, 1943 all pertain to apparatus with a single operating member for controlling the speed of the vehicle.
In 1952 U.S. Pat. No. 2,610,716 recognized the need to prevent skidding (Column 8, line 67) and provided a "manipulative pre-set mechanism under the control of a driver for adjusting the operation of the brakes."